Why did Mahatma Gandhi never won the Nobel Prize for Peace when his followers MLK did?

Question

Why did the great Mahatma never get a Nobel Peace Prize (which is considered the highest appreciation of Peace) for finding independence of an entire nation with Peace?
His strategy is followed worldwide and his follower Martin Luther King won the Nobel but not him?

Do you believe this is unfair and clear discrimination?

Answer 1

Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered in January 1948. The prize was not awarded in 1948 because of "no suitable living candidate" which most people took to mean they would have given it to Gandhi. The reason he was not selected on the earlier dates was because of a European bias on the committee and/or because it would have look like taking his side in a political controversy, in the thirties against Britain and in 1947 against Muslims.

Answer 2

I believe that it was unfair, but not necessarily discriminatory. The committee has sent out press releases over the years talking about that Gandhi's omission as been bad. They do point out that he was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and just before his death in 1948. That year, no prize was awarded on the grounds that there were no living candidates left, which to me is a lamest excuse ever. When the Dalai Lama won in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi." However, from what I understand of Gandhi, I do not think he cared about that prize. He was a humble man who just wanted the British out of India. Prizes and money meant nothing to him, just freedom for India.